David Hauser had been sent out to the Regional Payment Center in Chicago
to see why their computer was losing money -- or really misplacing it, since
there was no indication that it was going outside the government. The records
in Washington said what was really there, so it wasn't too serious, but
it was still annoying that things didn't add up right. Annoying enough that
the Treasury Department was very willing to fly someone out to look into
it.

He left D.C.
in the middle of the September day and got to the hotel in Chicago at
four in the afternoon local time -- too late to really start on the problem
that day, too early for any sort of nightlife. (Federal policy is to get
people in with lots of time to rest and adjust to time-shifts, but one
hour of difference Daniel could take in his stride any day.)

Daniel was
sitting in a chair in the hotel lobby half-reading a local newspaper when
he thought that the woman who was standing by the front door and looking
out looked sort of familiar. He didn't really know anybody in Chicago,
so he had decided that she just looked like somebody he knew when she
turned and recognized him.

It was Suzanne
Freeman, whom he had worked with five or six years ago, in his first government
job, just outside the cafeteria in the GAO Building. They were a few desks
apart then, tracking deposits through banks. He went from there to go
into computer trouble-shooting, and she got transferred into specialized
auditing.

She came
and sat in a chair right by him. She told him that she was in town to
check up on the Customs office at O'Hare Airport. They put her in town
late last night and she had spent today, Wednesday, figuring out what
she wanted to look at. She was supposed to be here two more days and go
back over the weekend.

Daniel had
been given a more flexible schedule, at least partly. If he couldn't solve
the problem here by Friday afternoon, he was supposed to finish it at
his desk in Washington through printouts or by calling up files through
a modem.

While he
hadn't seen much of Suzanne for years, they had passed each other in the
halls and once in a while talked on the phone at work about problems that
went from her to him. They knew a lot of the same people, and Daniel remembered
her as being very nice.

Both of them
were very glad to have someone familiar around to talk to in a strange
city. They talked for a couple of hours, then went out together to find
a place cheap enough to have the federal per-diem allowance pay for it.
A Chinese noodle place fit perfectly.

Over dinner,
Daniel learned that Suzanne had never been in the city before, so he offered
his services as guide to the local sights. (Ten days experience in two
trips through.) This kept them going until 10:30 at night.

When he walked
her back to her room, Suzanne gave him a quick goodnight kiss, which he
really hadn't expected. A few minutes later, as he was getting ready for
bed, he decided to follow up on it, though, and he called her room to
set up a meeting for breakfast together.

The next
morning, he returned the kiss. They separated after breakfast and worked
on their respective problems all day. There was a message from her on
the hotel switchboard when he got back, asking about meeting in the lobby
at six for dinner.

That night's
conversation was largely about what they had been working on that day,
but once they returned to the hotel and she invited him to sit in her
room and talk, the talk became more personal.

It only came
back to him later that she asked him as the door closed how he was getting
along with Janice. Janice was the last girlfriend she knew about, and
was two or three back, he explained to her; he was sort of dating two
women now, neither seriously. She sort of smiled with raised eyebrows
and said that she was not involved with a man either.

It was probably
close to ten when she said to him that it seemed stupid to talk across
a couple of feet of distance, with her on the bed and him in a chair.
They were adults, she was sure that she could trust him, so why didn't
he join her and sit on the bed.

It was kind
of a mutual decision that she lean on the arm that Daniel put around her,
with his back against the headboard. This situation, sitting in bed with
a young woman who looked better every minute, started influencing his
mind. And hers. Pretty soon she stopped in the middle of a sentence and
turned up her face and he kissed it.

That led
to another kiss, and in a little while her breath got faster and she was
trying to avoid looking at the front of his pants. Suzanne said to him,
or maybe to herself: "It's not as if we are strangers. But on the
other hand, it's not as if we see each other a lot. But that cuts both
ways, doesn't it?"

"What
do you mean?" he asked.

"Well,
if things don't work out, sort of."

"You
mean if we have a relationship and one of us wants to get out of it, there
won't be a problem from hard feelings at work."

"Also,
I mean a girl has to think of her reputation. I can trust you, can't I?
You won't talk about me, if, if we keep going this way?"

"If
we do... Only to you. And no hard feelings if you don't want to. It would
be nice, especially if it only begins here, but I can survive without
it."

"I...
Yes, I want to. And I know you do." She touched him between the legs.

Daniel got
off the bed and he took her hand to help her up also. He unbuttoned her
frilly blouse while he kissed her, and exposed her black lace bra. When
he put her blouse on the easy chair, she pulled his tie loose, then took
off his shirt and nuzzled his chest.

"I like
the way you smell," Suzanne whispered.

Daniel opened
her bra in the back and brought it forward to where she could shrug it
off. The little peaks pointed at him.

They stood
there for a moment pressed together with her hands gently squeezing him
where it felt the best to be squeezed gently. Then Daniel pulled down
the zipper on her skirt and as it dropped, Suzanne tugged his belt open
and reached in to tug on something else.

He stepped
back and zipped down his pants. Daniel stripped his shorts off and took
Suzanne in his arms again. His erection was against the bare skin of her
stomach now, and his testicles touching the nylon of her panties. His
head bent to her mouth and his tongue entered it to meet hers.

When he straightened
up she was flushed with passion. She stepped back to lie on the bed and
Daniel joined her there.

They caressed
each other on the legs and upper bodies for a few more minutes before
he drew down her panties and began to touch Suzanne more intimately. Not
much was needed there. She was ready for him. She whispered that she wanted
him to continue.

He raised
her legs slightly and entered her soft liquid cave. It took a moment for
her to spread apart enough, and far in enough, for him to fit, but she
had no hesitation. She was very responsive to his every movement and they
built slowly until he was pounding in more quickly than he could count.
When the first explosion hit her, he paused, then he began to enter and
withdraw at a slow pace. Suzanne dug her nails into his back as she went
through a string of orgasms.

They didn't
have to meet for breakfast; they just went down together. Though they
did go back to their rooms to change afterward. Her audit was finished
halfway through the day and she spent the afternoon seeing the city. His
job was 90% finished on Friday, with some details to be done in D.C. They
ate dinner and went to bed early (yes, both together). What they did there
was less spectacular than the night before, but very satisfying. They
had moved all her luggage into his room, and they went together to the
airport for their early morning flight.

Curiously,
she was reluctant to continue a physical relationship when they were back
at work, but it came, it came.